History of Nursing
History of Nursing
Nursing
•Ancient Egypt is considered as one of the earliest, longest-lasting and most prominent
civilization in history.
•Ancient Egyptians overlapped between magic, religion, sin, punishment, and the influence of
the supernatural in the events of daily life.
•Demons and Sins were assumed to bring diseases, sickness and
• disabilities as way of punishment.
•In ancient Egypt, health care professions such as physician or healers were usually priests who
were accountable for healing physical and psychological diseases.
•The priests acted as a link between humans and gods. They believed that people had to make
the Gods happy to have good health and peace of mind.
•The embalmer is the one who prepares the mummies to keep the body after death without
damage because to improve their knowledge of anatomy comparing the anatomy of human
bodies with that of animal bodies as indicated in the most of their ancient texts’.
•Other fields with such as the pharmacist, bandagers, masseur and even amulet seller who was
trained to take the pulse.
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Summary of
Ancient Cultures
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Medical treatment In
ancient Egypt
• Ancient Egypt treatment includes leaves, grass and the bark of the willow tree
contain salicylic acid used to treat inflammatory disease, to alleviate birth pains and
reduce fever.
• Egyptian doctors could stitch up wounds, repair broken bones and amputate infected
limbs. The incision was dressed by mixture of raw meat, linen, and swabs soaked
with honey. At the beginning of the Late period and early Ptolemaic period [656 BC–
323 BC], the so-called healing statues were appeared.
• Internal disorders were managed by using magic and amulets in this case will be
wider beside the invocations to gods who were involved in both causing diseases and
cure them.
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Different title to Caregivers In
Ancient Egypt:
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Different title to Caregivers In Ancient Egypt:
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Site of Healthcare in
Ancient Cultures:
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Site of Healthcare in Ancient Cultures:
• According to the Ottawa Charter, ‘Health Promotion’ is a health strategy that aims to incorporate skills and community
development and to create supportive environments for health, endeavors to build healthy public policy and looks at re-orienting
health services (WHO, 1986).
• Although it is commonly accepted that these basic concepts of health promotion have been developed in the last two decades, they
have roots in ancient civilizations and in particular in Greek antiquity.
• As evident from medical and philosophical documents—especially of the sixth to fourth centuries B.C. the ancient Greeks were
the first to break with the metaphysical/supernatural conceptions of health and disease that had so far dominated human societies
(Edelstein, 1987).
• The ancient Greeks’ apprehension of health and illness was based on the theory of the four ‘fluids’ (blood, phlegm, yellow bile and
black bile) which was of great significance for Pythagorean philosophy that dominated the pre-Socratic period (Temkin, 1995).
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Hippocratic:
• Pathogenic process, according to Hippocratics, is a result of the overturn of
equilibrium and the predominance of one of the four fluids that causes disease
through the disruption of the equilibrium of the four fluids
• Hippocratics posited a natural theory of disease etiology and notes that the
treatment of male impotence.
• Hippocrates’ treatise About Wind, Water and Places is not only a text of great
historical value but also a groundbreaking achievement. Beneficence and
nonmaleficence are age old requirements of the Hippocratic Oath for health
professionals to ‘do good’ and ‘do not harm’ (Racher, 2007).
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Greek History:
• Little is known of Greek medicine before the appearance of written texts in the fifth century B.C. Greece as
many other prehistoric countries possessed folk healers, including priest healers and chief tribunes
employing divination and drugs.
• Greek society at large drew heavily upon sacred healing. In Homer, Apollo appears as the ‘God of healing’.
• During the fourth and the third century the cult of Asclepius and the practice of Hippocratic medicine
spread, and by 200 B.C. every large town in Greece had an Asklepieion.
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Roman Empire:
• After 300 BC they built them self with the work of Greece and Egyptian.
• They advance their work more and known as best in public health.
• Believe health can be restored by God.
• Two classes Patricians (upper class) and Plebicians (Lower class).
• Organized group and funded monasteries and hospitals.
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India:
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Christianity:
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Middle Ages:
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Fifteenth to Nineteenth Century:
• The Eastern Orthodox Church had established many hospitals in the middle
east but following the rise of Islam from the 7th century.
• Increased in population in cites with more hygiene and sanitation leads to
sever health problems.
• Society changes were forming a great effect on health care system.
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Nursing in Mughal period:
• Emperor Akbar went through many vicissitudes in his life and probably the most
cumbersome was the presence and activities of his wet-nurse or foster mothers known
in the Mughal world as ‘angas’.
• Maham Anaga was the governess of Emperor Akbar. As the word ‘Anaga’ means
nurse.
• Maham Anga (died 1562) was the chief nurse of the Mughal emperor Akbar from 1560
to 1562.
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Islam and Nursing:
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Pre-Islamic and Islamic Era (570–632 AD):
• Rufiada Al- Aslamia’s father, Saad Al- Aslami, was a physician and mentor. She initially obtained clinical
experience from her father. Then devoted herself to nursing. she practiced her skills in field hospital in her
tent during many battles.
• When Saad Ibn Muaath was injured in the battle of Al-Khandaq ( The Trench) , Prophet Muhammad
(peace be upon him) ordered that he be placed and treated in her tent.
• She focused on hygiene and stabilizing patients prior furthermore invasive medical procedures.
• Rufaida led groups of volunteer nurses who went to battlefield and treated the casualties. She participated
in the battles of Badr, Uhud, Khandaq, khaibar and others.
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The founder of Modern
Nursing
The Lady with the Lamp:
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The founder of Modern Nursing
• She is also referred as “The Lady with the Lamp” . In 1860, she laid the foundation of
professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’
Hospital London.
• It was the first secular nursing school in the world. Annual International Nurses Day is
celebrated on her birthday
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Definitions of
Nursing
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Definition of Nursing
by WHO:
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Definition of Nursing by
Florence Nightingale:
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Definition of nursing by
Virginia Henderson:
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Definition of nursing by
Dorothea Orem:
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Definition of Nursing
by Effie Taylor:
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Nursing Defined by
International Council of
Nursing:
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Definition of nursing by ANA
(American Nurses Association):
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Types of Nursing
Educational
Programs
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Reference:
• Elhabashy, Sameh & Abdelgawad, Elshaimaa. (2019). The History of Nursing Profession in
Ancient Egyptian Society. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences. 11. 100174.
10.1016/j.ijans.2019.100174.
• Frenk, Julio, Lincoln Chen, Zulfiqar A. Bhutta, Jordan Cohen, Nigel Crisp, Timothy Evans,
Harvey Fineberg, et al. (2010). Health professionals for a new century: transforming education
to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. The Lancet 376(9756): 1923-1958.
• Alligood MR, Tomey AM. Nursing Theorists and Their Work. 6th ed. Mosby: Singapore; 2006.
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Maria Paulita
Modequillo
LNC
Thank you
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